We are delighted to unveil the cover for our coming of age pamphlet, Olivia Dawson’s Unbottled.
Unbottled features the stunning artwork of Maytree favourite, Samantha Read who previously worked on Nicola Warwick’s collection, Naming the Land.
Unbottled is Olivia’s second pamphlet with Maytree and we’re absolutely delighted to be working on this thought provoking collection.
Originally titled, Spitting into Bottles after the poem, in this collection of poems we join the author on a journey of discovery as she digs beneath the truth to discover the roots of her ancestry.
Provisional release date is Friday 28 October 2022. Look out for news of launch events coming soon.
Spitting into Bottles
My mother’s mother has a lover
my mother’s mother’s lover is a puzzle
my mother’s mother leaves my mother
in a Home for awkward silences.
A mother-to-no-one loves
my mother’s dimples, takes my mother in
feeds her fresh baked cinnamon swirls
gives her a father-figure who whistles
but my mother searches and searches
finds her blood mother who tells her nothing
my mother searches and searches
finds half-of-a-much-younger-sister
who isn’t silenced. My mother’s half-
of-a-much-younger-sister doesn’t know
there’s another half, she doesn’t know a thing.
My mother’s other half, half looks
like me and my father wobbles
when he spots our sameness, warns me
off boys. I spit into a bottle to find
my mother’s mother’s runaway lover
I spit into another bottle to find the mother
of my mother’s mother’s lover, I want to discover
why I’m not blessed with long slim legs
and a thigh gap like no other.
About the Author
Olivia Dawson, originally from London, has also lived in France and Brazil.
She divides her time between London, and the Sintra Hills near Lisbon, and
is the Poetry Society Stanza rep for the Lisbon area. Recent poems have been
published in 14 Magazine, Eye Flash Poetry, Iamb – poetry seen and heard,
Alchemy Spoon, Magma, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Time & Tide
(Arachne Press) Coast to Coast to Coast, The Poetry Village, ROAM 1 of
The University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies. She has been longlisted
for the National Poetry Competition, shortlisted for Paper Swans Press
Pamphlet Competition, and shortlisted for Poetry on the Lake Competition.
Her debut pamphlet Unfolded was published by Maytree Press in 2020 and
Unbottled is her second pamphlet.
